Editing Death Angel (section)

===''Act III'' and breakup (1989–1991)===
[[Geffen Records]] bought out the band's contract with Enigma Records in 1989 and released the third Death Angel album, ''[[Act III (Death Angel album)|Act III]]'', in 1990. Produced by [[Max Norman]] (who had previously worked with [[Ozzy Osbourne]], [[Megadeth]], [[Savatage]], [[Fates Warning]] and [[Loudness (band)|Loudness]]), the album showcased the band's newfound use of full-band backing vocals, while fusing elements of funk, thrash, and heavy metal with acoustic guitars to give the album a varied feel, while staying true to the group's heavy roots. The album featured the singles "Seemingly Endless Time" and "A Room with a View" (a ballad sung mostly by guitarist Rob Cavestany), and both songs received airplay on [[MTV]]'s ''[[Headbangers Ball]]'', but a mainstream breakthrough still proved elusive. The band released the "A Room with a View" video and single under the name "D.A." and Cavestany explained to a reporter at the time that he now found the band's original name "restricting. The name Death Angel seems to imply hardcore thrash gloom-and-doom death metal, and we're not like that at all. If I were presented with 10 records, and one of them was by a band called Death Angel, and I'd never heard of them, I'd stick that one on the bottom!"<ref name=autogenerated3>{{cite web|author=Fredric L. Rice, Organized Crime Civilian Response |url=http://skepticfiles.org/en003/dethangl.htm |title=DEATH ANGEL A fan who won a pair of tickets to Death Angel's December 1 show at Oakland's |website=Skepticfiles.org |date=June 1, 2001 |access-date=June 3, 2016}}</ref>

Also in 1990, Enigma Records, already having sold its interest in the band to the Geffen label, illegally released and distributed ''[[Fall from Grace (Death Angel album)|Fall from Grace]]'', an unauthorized live album featuring songs from their first two releases and recorded at the [[Paradiso (Amsterdam)|Paradiso]] in [[Amsterdam]], Netherlands. The album was released without any input from the band members with regard to its songs, contents, credits, concepts, or artwork. The band learned of its existence when they stumbled upon it in a record store in [[Tucson, Arizona]], on the night before a near-fatal auto accident. Enigma Records folded after the release, cashing in on the sales. The album was picked up, manufactured and distributed by Capitol Records, also possibly illegally.{{cn|date=May 2025}}

Death Angel had embarked on what was scheduled to be a worldwide tour in support of ''[[Act III (Death Angel album)|Act III]]'' in 1990, selling out shows at the [[Warfield Theatre]] in San Francisco, [[The Ritz (rock club)|The Ritz]] in New York, and England's [[Hammersmith Odeon]], and touring, or playing selected shows, with the likes of [[Forbidden (band)|Forbidden]], [[Vicious Rumors]], [[Sanctuary (band)|Sanctuary]], [[Sepultura]], [[Sacred Reich]], [[Morbid Angel]], [[Atheist (band)|Atheist]], [[Forced Entry (band)|Forced Entry]], [[Dead Horse (band)|Dead Horse]] and former [[Megadeth]] guitarist [[Chris Poland]].<ref name="metallipromo" /> While driving in [[Arizona]] en route to a show in [[Las Vegas]], the group's tour bus crashed, and drummer Andy Galeon was critically injured, needing more than a year to recover. Cavestany said at the time that "[i]n a way, it made perfect sense to have a major accident right now, it really fit the story line. We've been pushing so hard for 8 years and just not getting that far, and getting so frustrated with not being where we should be after so long, it was time for something climactic to happen!" <ref name=autogenerated3 /> The band was also slated to be the opening act for the [[Clash of the Titans (tour)|Clash of the Titans]] tour featuring [[Megadeth]], [[Slayer]], and [[Anthrax (American band)|Anthrax]] in the summer of 1991, but were ultimately replaced by [[Alice in Chains]] since they were unable to perform. Additionally, Death Angel and Geffen were planning to release a live album recorded at shows in the Bay Area, and the band was intending to tour a number of other countries it had not previously visited. According to Cavestany, they were invited to tour Europe with [[Annihilator (band)|Annihilator]] and [[Judas Priest]], supporting the latter on their ''[[Painkiller (Judas Priest album)|Painkiller]]'' [[Painkiller Tour|tour]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.rocking.gr/interviews/Death-Angel-interview-Rob-Cavestany/17570|title=Death Angel interview (Rob Cavestany)|publisher=rocking.gr|date=October 11, 2013|access-date=May 21, 2018}}</ref> Due to the bus accident, Death Angel declined and was replaced by [[Pantera]].

Following the accident, Geffen Records and the band's manager pressured the group to hire another drummer and immediately go back to work. The band performed a few shows in Japan with drummer [[Chris Kontos (drummer)|Chris Kontos]], but when they declined to hire a long-term replacement, Geffen Records dropped them.

Osegueda left the group and moved to New York to pursue a life outside of music, and Cavestany later explained that "[w]e weren't going to try to replace him and with all that stuff happening we were just totally disgusted at how things had turned out and we felt that this was a sign that the band was not going to go on."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://web.textfiles.com/ezines/COC/coc074.txt |format=TXT |title=Chronicles of Chaos |website=Web.textfiles.com |access-date=June 3, 2016}}</ref> The remaining members performed a few acoustic-only shows in the Bay Area, appearing as "the Past."